theodp writes: "Just when you thought annual reviews couldn't get worse, BusinessWeek reports that HR departments at companies like Microsoft and IBM are starting to use mathematical analysis to determine the value of each employee. At an undisclosed Internet company, analysis of (non-verbal) communications was used to produce a circle to represent each employee — those determined to generate or pass along valuable info were portrayed as large and dark-colored circles ("thought leaders" and "networked curators"), while those with small and pale circles were written off as not adding a hell of a lot. "You have to bring the same rigor you bring to operations and finance to the analysis of people," explains Microsoft's Rupert Bader. Hey, who could argue with what Quants did for finance?"